Review by belovedspeaking - The Mad Ship

belovedspeaking 's review for:

The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb

4.75

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

this sequel charges full tilt ahead into the incomplete story of its predecessor and actually answers several of the questions that came to mind at the first half of it. the speed of the plot was entrancing and the multiple povs actually settled into a good rhythm compared to the chaotic narration in ship of magic. several characters i previously thought of as unredeemable or cast away as irrevocably boring stood on their two feet and forced me to, if not love them, then atleast admire their tenacity. in ship of magic and the first half of mad ship, althea was such a point of focus for me and now malta, awful snotty little 12 yo malta and her equally snotty little nun of a brother wintrow are the vestrits i looked out for in this book. they somehow wormed their way into my heart while i wasn't looking. a new history emerged that aligned the events of the farseer trilogy better with the events of the liveship traders. there was much care baked into this book, unlike assassin's quest which now seems like a child's scrap book in comparison. maybe a reread of assquest would make me see it in a different light but the mad ship won me over despite being at the very disadvantaged position of having, in my opinion, only two characters out of its absurdly large ensemble cast worth rooting for in the beginning. genuinely life changing or i guess series changing piece of literature. because why was i picking out quotes of people talking to thee mad ship paragon and thinking that's exactly how people sound when they talk to me. 0.25 docked for the random ass lesbophobia. i can tolerate misogyny but not lesbophobia (/JOKE. /ref even).

Content Warnings